The Java Card Forum Accelerates Standardization of Java Card API - Cooperation and consultation with industry leaders moves Java Card API (Application Programming Interface) forward in vertical markets.

PARIS (20 October, 1998) -- JavaTM Card Forum today announced significant contributions to the Java Card API standardization process and its industry-specific extensions. The Java Card Forum is a consortium of Java Card licensees of Sun Microsystems Inc., including all of the major smart card manufacturers committed to the Java Card standard. The Forum has established a Strategic Partner program with industry-leading smart card issuers from three major industry sectors: Telecommunications, Banking/Finance and Information Technology. The aim of this program is to gather input on business and technical issues to formulate industry-specific extensions to the Java Card API.

Among the results of the latest series of Java Card Forum working meetings are descriptions of market requirements for each of these vertical industries. In the Telecommunications group, the specification for a GSM API has been defined and agreed upon between the Forum members and the Strategic Partners. This GSM API is being transferred to ETSI SMG9, the standardization body which is now officially represented in the Technical Committee of the Java Card Forum. This GSM API will complement the generic Java Card API. ETSI SMG9 is taking this GSM API into its process to make it a standard by the end of this year.

"The wireless telecom industry needs a more open platform to deliver new services in a timely fashion. It is the role of ETSI SMG9 to build the standard for this new GSM platform. SMG9 is pleased to take the Java Card Forum specifications as a major contribution for this standard." said Mark GREEN, Chairman of the ETSI SMG9 API Subgroup.

Michel ROUX, Chairman of the Business Committee, declared: "We are very satisfied to see the involvement of the Java Card Forum. Their active participation is the promise of rapid acceptance of solutions meeting their needs, particularly in terms of interoperability, security and productivity."

After its significant contributions to the Java Card API 2.0 specification, the Java Card Forum has agreed with JavaSoft on the specification of the Java Card API 2.1. The main topics included in the Java Card API v2.1 are object sharing between applets, transient objects, cryptography API, file system management and byte code format.

Bertrand du CASTEL, Chairman of the Technical Committee said, "The technical cooperation between the Java Card Forum members and JavaSoft, driven by the needs of the Strategic Partners, proves to be very effective and is leading to an open standard based on a powerful and secure architecture."

Christian GOIRE, President of the Forum declared, "The Java Card Forum allows the fast creation of the first standard allowing open, secure and interoperable solutions for smart cards. Java with such a wide acceptance between card manufacturers, card issuers and customers is definitely a major step for the smart card industry."

Evidence of the success of this new technology will be given at Cartes 98 (October 27-29) through implementations of the Java Card API and of vertical applications in smart cards.

Founded in February 1997 by Gemplus and Schlumberger (now Axalto), the JavaTM Card Forum aims at promoting the Java Card API as an industry standard platform for smart cards. Strongly endorsed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.,., creator of the Java language and the Java Card API, the Java Card Forum is open to Java licensees and has been joined by major hardware and software companies.

The Java Card Forum holds regular meetings to allow the exchange of technical information between participants, and makes technical contributions to Sun Microsystems, Inc.,., for the Java Card API specification, as well as to standardization bodies such as ETSI.

To ensure the deployment of Java-based smart card applications, Strategic Partners from key markets (Banking/Finance, Telecommunications, Information Technology...) are invited to work with the Forum members regarding technical issues and possible industry-specific extensions for the Java Card specification. The current members of the Java Card Forum are: Bull, CitiCorp, De La Rue, Gemplus, Giesecke & Devrient, Hitachi, IBM, Inside Technologies, IPM, Keycorp, Motorola, Natwest, Oberthur, ORGA, Schlumberger (now Axalto) and Toshiba.

For more information see the Java Card Forum web site.

The Java Card API was developed by JavaSoft, in collaboration with smart card manufacturers. It is based on Java and the Java Virtual Machine concept, a popular object-oriented software platform, which belongs to Sun.

ETSI SMG9 is responsible for the specification of the Integrated Circuit (IC) card / Mobile Equipment interface for GSM, DCS1800 and UMTS, and for monitoring developments relating to the use of IC cards outside of ETSI (European Telecom Standards Institute).

Contacts:

Mr. Christian Goire, President, Java Card Forum

Tel: (33)1 39 66 46 04

Mr. Michel Roux, Chairman, JCF Business Committee

Tel: 1 (650) 654-2940

Mr. Bertrand du Castel, Chairman, JCF Technical Committee

Tel: 1 (512) 331-3205

Java^TM is a trademark of Sun Microsystems

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